Chewing Gum
by goldensphere
Summary: Why is Paul acting so strangely random all of a sudden? Gary, Ash, and Drew are off to solve the mystery!


**Hi everyone! Here's another one-shot. Enjoy reading!**

 **I do not own Pokémon in any way.**

* * *

" _Where is_ _he?"_ grumbled Gary through his gritted teeth as he paced back and forth. _  
_

"I bet he's late again," sighed Ash. "Like he always is."

Drew, Ash, and Gary were all gathered by the oak tree where they always met at lunch time. This time, though, Gary claimed that he figured out something about a teacher, and was eager to share it with his friends. Unfortunately, Drew and Ash insisted on waiting for Paul, who was late, as usual.

" _There_ you are!" exclaimed Drew after what felt like hours, as he spotted Paul coming out of the school building. "You made us miss half of lunch time already!"

The three friends walked over and surrounded the purple-headed boy.

"Don't just _stand_ there!" yelled the frustrated Gary dragging this friend of his to the tree as the other two followed. "By the time you come to the tree, there won't be any time left! _Hurry up_ , man! You've gotta learn how to be quick!"

They finally reached the tree again, and got into a circle as Gary started to speak.

"You know what I saw Mr.—" Before he could finish, the boy was cut off by Ash.

"Hey, what's wrong, Paul?" interrupted Ash. "You look a bit... not like yourself."

The other two turned around. It was true. And why was Paul looking so confused?

"Oh my gosh, man!" exclaimed Gary, suddenly jumping back with a rather startled expression. "Your face, it-it looks so _innocent_! That is _so_ creepy!"

"Your eyes look different," pointed out Drew. "I never knew they were green."

Ash snapped his fingers in front of Paul's face. Paul just stood there blankly, looking more confused than ever. Normally, if Ash had done that, he would have gotten a punch in the face in return.

"Yup. There is definitely something wrong," said Ash.

"Hel _lo?_ ," sang Gary knocking on Paul's head. "Anybody in there?"

"Maybe he hit his head somewhere!" cried Drew.

"Nah. That's too good to be true," joked the spiky haired boy. "But seriously, dude. What's wrong?"

Gary started looking more serious now.

"Paul?" whispered Ash. " _Paul?"_

Finally, their plum head friend spoke up. But he said the most unexpected thing that just made them all look at him.

"Apples are _not_ types of oranges," Paul snapped loudly in a serious tone.

" _What?_ "

"Goodbye forever, Reggie's laptop," mumbled the boy with a smirk and walked away, causing the other three to just stare after him with their jaws dropped open.

Something even stranger happened later that day.

As lunch break ended and everyone headed back to the building, Paul came out again, this time looking much more like himself. Ash, Drew and Gary stared at him to see what he would say this time.

"What?" asked the boy, looking at them awkwardly. "Oh yeah, the tree. Oh whatever, tell me some other time," he mumbled and headed to class.

"That was _weird_ ," murmured Ash. The other two were simply too speechless to reply.

* * *

The next day, as the boys, Ash, Gary and Drew, were walking down the school hall after school, they heard quite a lot of screams all of a sudden. It sounded pretty obvious that all the screamers were girls.

"Aaaaahhhhhhhhhh!"

"What. Was. _That_?" demanded Drew.

"I think it came from the girls bathroom," exclaimed Ash with a touch of panic in his voice. "Let's go see."

"Hey, hey! _Wait_ a minute, man! _Wait_ a minute!" cried Gary shaking his head. "We're _not_ going in _there_!'

"But-but what if they're in _danger_?" protested Ash with a pleading look. "What if—" Before he could finish his sentence, they found out what was the cause of the scream.

Out came...

" _Paul?!_ " The three cried together in unison.

They all broke into questions.

"Paul, what were you doing in the _girl's bathroom_?"

"Are you _crazy_ , man?"

"What got into you?"

"Are you feeling alright?"

Once again, Paul's face twisted in confusion. His mouth fell slightly open. He looked from Drew, to Ash, to Gary, then back to Drew.

Drew grabbed Paul's shoulders and shook him hard.

"What is _wrong_ with you?" he yelled. "Why are you acting like this?" There was no reply.

"Maybe he needs glasses," suggested Ash.

"Glasses are for _vision_ , Ash," said Drew. "I doubt it would cure this craziness."

"There is something wrong with him and we know it," Ash said with a grave face. "We're Paul's friends. We need to help him."

"Ash has a point," said Drew. "But how?"

"Yeah," added Gary. "We should call ourselves Team Gary. Let's each act like Paul so everyone stays out of our way and it would be easier to solve the mystery." And then he added, "Oh yeah! We should keep an eye on Paul in case he makes a fool of himself again!"

"That's a good idea," said Drew with a smile. "But it won't be easy."

"Hey, but why does _everything_ have to have the word _Gary_?" complained Ash. "You even chose an _oak_ tree for our meeting place! Why don't we call it Team Ash instead?"

"Hn? That would just sound too _pathetic_!" scoffed Gary. "Hey! Being Paul isn't that bad!"

"Why not we call ourselves _dag_?" suggested Drew. "D for Drew, A for Ash, and G for Gary!"

"Why does _my_ name have to be last?" whined Gary childishly. "Let's make _gad_ instead!"

"No," the green-headed boy replied stubbornly. "We're going to act like Paul so let's make it an unpleasant name. Dag means unfashionable, and _that's_ unpleasant."

"What does gad mean, then?" asked Ash.

"It means going from one place to another for entertainment," explained Drew. "We're not doing this for fun. This is serious."

"Hah! Like being unfashionable is— Wait, where's Paul?" Gary suddenly notice the absence of the boy.

"Oh no!" groaned the three boys.

"Quick! Scram!" yelled Gary as many people turned around to look. "There's a Paul on the loose!"

"Um, Gary," said Drew. "Don't attract any attention. We're Pauls, remember?"

"Hn. Hn," mumbled Gary making his expression as neutral as he could.

"Let's look for Paul," said Ash, trying to imitate Paul voice (unsuccessfully).

* * *

The three boys walked around with gloomy expressions, but, unfortunately, this only attracted more attention since they usually weren't like this.

"Ugh, I can't stand it anymore!" cried Ash all of a sudden. "Let's just act like ourselves!"

"Yeah, you're right," the other two agreed.

"Let's ask someone if they've seen him," suggested Ash.

"He might have gone home," Drew pointed out. "We're a few of the only ones left at school now, since it was over about an hour or two ago."

Eventually, they decided to go check at his house. Gary pulled out his phone.

"Actually, let's call to make sure," he said as he dialed Paul's home number. Paul's brother picked up the phone.

"Yyyellow?" said Reggie.

"Hi, is Paul there?" asked Gary.

"Yup."

"Can I talk to him?"

"I'm sure you _can_! Haha."

Sometimes Reggie could be the most annoying person in the world, it seemed to Gary.

" _May_ I talk to him?"

"You don't sound like May!"

"Reggie, _please!"_

"You sound like my brother! Hah! What's the rush?"

"I need to ask—Oh wait. So he's home, right?"

"Yup!"

"Okay, we're coming over."

"Who's _we_?"

"Me, Ash and Drew. Now, goodbye!"

"Oh okay. By the way, sorry for—"

Gary turned off the phone.

"He's at home," he told the others. "Let's go."

* * *

Luckily, Paul's house was walking distance from the school, so they reached there in about fifteen minutes.

 _Ding dong_. Gary rang the doorbell as Reggie opened the door.

"Not _you_ again!" Gary groaned. Reggie scratched the back of his head.

"Oh yeah. Sorry for—"

"Step aside, please," interrupted Gary in his most toughest voice.

"Okay, okay!" Paul's brother laughed. "Come in!"

"Where's Paul?" Ash questioned.

"In his bedroom, talking to who knows who," Reggie sighed casually.

"Let's go, men," Gary ordered his two friends, causing Paul's brother to laugh again. _How could he be laughing in such a serious situation_? Gary thought bitterly.

"Hey, Reggie," Drew said suddenly. "Did _you_ notice anything different about Paul?"

"Not really," was the reply. "Except one day he randomly came to me and mumbled 'How could this place not have any orange juice?' although there was orange juice in the fridge! And recently, he's been alone in his room talking to someone and won't let me in!"

"Very, very suspicious," said Ash, tapping his chin. Gary rolled his eyes.

"Let's go find Paul, guys," he mumbled and the three headed upstairs.

"Better be careful though!" Reggie called after them. "He already smashed my laptop for taking his picture in an awkward position while he was sleeping!"

* * *

The upstairs of the house was much more darker than downstairs. The lights were all off except for a bit of light that was visible just below a closed door.

As quietly as they could, Ash, Drew, and Gary tiptoed towards the room and listened. The door had big warning, caution, and danger signs all over it.

"I _told_ you! _Stop_!" They heard Paul's voice grumble from inside the door. " _No_! Go back in there!"

The three listening boys looked at each other. Who could he be talking to?

"You've embarrassed me enough! Get back into the pokéball, _you lump of chewed chewing gum! N_ _ow!"_

 _How mean. He must be talking to a Pokémon!_ Ash thought angrily. _Oh, I'll teach that guy a lesson!_ And before he could stop himself, Ash barged into Paul's room but then he froze.

He had been expecting to see Paul towering over a Pokémon (possibly a Skitty) as the Pokémon cowered in the corner. Instead, he saw a stressed looking Paul facing about eight other smirking Pauls all looking exactly identical.

"What the—" said Ash looking at all the Pauls.

When Paul saw Ash, he looked like he wanted to bang his head on the wall over and over again, but he didn't.

"What are you doing in my room?!" Paul growled through his gritted teeth.

Drew and Gary joined Ash.

"Where did all the other Pauls come from?" Drew asked looking around.

Paul sighed exasperatedly.

"You guys were listening the entire time, weren't you?" he sighed.

"Maybe just the last bit," Gary admitted.

"Well, please do me a favour and go away," the purple-headed boy said to all of them.

Just then, another Paul walked up to Drew and said in exactly the real Paul's voice, "That green-headed kid always reminds me of spinach mixed with perfume."

"What? Really?" asked Drew looking at the real Paul. Paul avoided his eye contact.

"Okay fine. Maybe a bit," he mumbled. "But forget it."

Before the other Pauls could tell any more of Paul thoughts, the real Paul threatened to punch them if they said anything else.

"So where did all the Pauls come from?" Gary asked. Paul looked slightly annoyed.

"Stop calling it ' _Pauls_ '," he grumbled. "It's not me."

"Then who are they?" questioned Ash.

"Why are you all so talkative?" murmured Paul."There is no _they_. It's an _it_."

"Huh?"

"Don't you get it? Haven't you ever heard of the move 'double team'?"

"Yeah, but why are there so many of _you_?" Drew asked seeing Ash's blank expression.

"Hey! You get back here!" Paul suddenly cried angrily. It turned out that as they were talking, one of the eight Pauls had managed to escape out the window. The other seven Pauls stood up and started clapping slowly.

Paul ran to the window, but it was too late. It had escaped.

"Dun dun daahhh!" one of the seven Pauls shouted.

The real Paul gave it a punch in the face as promised and it wiped off its smirk. The other three boys forced themselves not to laugh. Paul wanted to punch them too, but he knew better than to do so. Paul slapped his forehead.

"Another one to find," Paul said to himself as he locked the window so nobody else could escape. "That makes twenty-one."

"Wait, what?!" demanded Gary. "How did you manage to double team in the first place? Only Pokémon can do that! And why did you?"

"Fool! _I_ didn't use double team. A Ditto did!" exclaimed Paul as if it were obvious.

"But a ditto can only use transform," Drew pointed out. "It would only be able to use double team if you can, in this circumstance."

Drew proudly flipped his hair on his knowledge. That was one reason Paul liked Drew as a friend. He wasn't dumb like the others.

"Yes, but I found a rare ditto that had _two_ moves. Transform and _double team,"_ explained Paul more calmly. "I thought it would be strong but instead, it only repeats stuff he heard me say before to random people. And it has good hearing."

"Oh!" cried Ash. "So when you smashed Reggie's laptop, it heard you say 'Goodbye Reggie's laptop' and repeated it!"

"How did you know I sma—Did Reggie tell you?"

"Yup!"

"That fool..."

"But when did you say 'an apple is not a type of orange'?" asked Gary curiously.

"That's a long story," mumbled Paul in reply. "Reggie kept saying that an apple was a type of orange so I would eat it." Then he added, "I don't like apples, by the way."

Gary just stared at him. "I never knew that," he said.

"Okay. So how are we supposed to catch them all now," Drew asked walking in between the two boys.

Paul raised an eyebrow. " _W_ e?"

"Of course!" exclaimed Ash. "We're your friends, Paul! We can't just let you do this on your own!"

Paul shook his head. Just then, he smirked.

"I think that Ditto deserves someone nice," he said loudly surprising all of them. Paul walked over to the seven other Pauls. "Don't you think?" he asked.

"I have enough of a heart to give you to one of my _friends_ ," he said looking at the ditto. There was a touch of sarcasm in his voice. As if reading his mind, the many Pauls started to combine and shrink right in from of their eyes. Slowly, it became shorter and shorter until it became what looked like a little pink blob of jello. A ditto.

"Goodbye _forever,_ Ditto," said Paul. "Go find some other trainer. You may be rare but still, I'm gonna _release_ you."

Then just as he planned, Ash ran forwards.

"How could you, Paul! That's so mean!" Ash cried. Then kneeling down by the Ditto he said, "It's okay, Ditto. I'll take you, and I'll take _great_ care of you, unlike _some_ people."

At the moment, there was confetti and orange balloons flying around in Paul's brain. This plan was going _just perfect_.

"Now that that's all settled," sighed Paul. "Why don't you guys just leave and let me have some peace and quiet?"

"Whatever. If that's what you want," said Gary as he shrugged. The three boys left, letting the fourth have his moment of tranquility.

 _This is going just the way I wanted,_ Paul thought with a smirk. _There is more to just befriending it, Ash._

* * *

A few hours later, as Paul was lazing around on his bed, the doorbell rang. He had a feeling he knew who it could be. He waited for a few moments until he heard it.

"Hi Ash!" he heard Reggie say cheerfully. "Paul is upstairs in his bedroom."

After a while, he heard footsteps come up and his bedroom door opened. Paul sat up.

"Oh hi, _Ash_. I was waiting for you!" said Paul with mocking eyes. "How are you getting along with _Ditto_?"

"I can't believe I'm named Ash because of my black hair!" cried Ash unhappily.

"Oh, yeah. I'm not _that_ surprised, though," Paul snickered. "By the way, Ditto," he added. "Do me a favour?"

"Sure, Mom!" was the reply. Paul made a face at being called 'mom'. It gave him a weird feeling, even if a Ditto said it. But he continued anyways.

"The favour is to use double team and multiply yourself by a hundred. That would be a pleasure to me, and I know that fool won't even have the heart to release you. Got it?"

'Ash' punched the air. "I especially love those chocolaty kinds!" it exclaimed cheerfully. Paul patted his back.

"Now off you go, _Ash_!" said the purple-headed boy. "Don't forget what I told you!"

Ditto winked. Paul winked in return with a half smile.

The Pokémon ran off happily. He was glad to do the favour, oh, that mischievous one.

After 'Ash' left, Reggie came upstairs to Paul and said, "Ash was acting a bit strange today, you know?"

"Hn?" replied Paul.

"Yeah," said Reggie. "Before he left, he shouted to me, 'Don't forget what I told you!', and then he ran off before I could ask him what. The problem is, _what was I not to forget?_ He didn't tell me anything!"

"Hn. Ash is always like that. Forget about him, he's just weird."

Reggie looked uncertain. "If-if you say so," he murmured. "I guess you know him better than me, since you're friends."

The last part made Paul wince. He and Ash were nothing _close_ to friends. He only spent time with him because he was friends with the other two.

 _Oh well, at least Ash got what he deserved for being so childish,_ thought Paul. _Poor, poor_ _Ash_. Paul smirked to himself as Reggie left. _Yup we're so friends,_ he thought _. I gave him the Ditto. What are friends for, right Ash?_

* * *

 **And that's it! Hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to R &R! Have a wonderful day! And for the rest of the days, _ditto_!  
**


End file.
